best performance upgrades for a laptop
Best Performance Upgrades for a Laptop
It has been a couple of years since you emptied your wallet on the latest high performing laptop available in the market; however, your most prized possession already seems to be in need of some serious overhauling. If you're looking to get a performance upgrade on your laptop, the tips in this article may be useful for you.
Laptop Parts that May be Upgraded | |
Battery | If you're frustrated with the battery life on your laptop and find the replacement from the manufacturer pricey, search online for a compatible one instead. And while you're at it, purchase one with a higher capacity that is sure to last longer. This is sure to be one easy upgrade; however, your manufacturer is less likely to be too pleased with your choice. You'll have a choice of number of cells while buying a battery such that a 9-cell battery will have more capacity than a 6-cell battery. Go for the maximum cells your laptop model can support to match your gaming and video requirements. |
Hard Drive | You will need to purchase a hard drive and run some programs to replicate the existing hard drive. It is almost as simple as it sounds. Typically, you would be able to purchase hard drives online with the installation kit. Depending on whether you need to double or triple the existing storage, purchase one from a reliable vendor. The kit typically comes with instructions or you could refer to the vendor site for the installation steps. All you'll need is a USB cable to plug the drive, run the installation that will clone your existing drive contents on the new drive and finally boot up your laptop with the new drive. You can either add on an external hard drive or swap your existing drive with the new one and use your old hard drive as a backup external drive! That should take care of your storage needs for a couple of more years. Anything from 160 GB up to 1 TB should be good enough, while a spin of 5400 RPM works for most laptops. You may upgrade to a drive with 7200 RPM, but remember that more the RPM, more the heat (though more the RPM, faster is the data transfer speed), so weigh your options. |
RAM | Memory capacity is another relatively hassle-free upgrade that you can do. Purchase RAM modules that suit your requirement the most, whether you want to add on to the existing capacity or replace the memory entirely. You should be able to easily find new modules that match your old ones, in case you're looking to tag on to the existing memory capacity of your laptop. Depending on your laptop model, the memory slots would be located either on the underside or below the keypad. Unscrew the chip (usually labeled as M for memory) to replace with the new chip. Assemble again and boot up your laptop. The new RAM or additional RAM should be detected automatically. Using DDR3 you will be able to scale to higher clock speeds and go for a 1600MHz speed for better performance, if you have a compatible laptop model. |
Processor | A laptop requiring a processor upgrade puts into question your real intentions for doing so as opposed to buying a new laptop; however, if you're ready to rise up to the challenge, this also may be possible. Remember that you're treading into complex and super-geeky turf! If the processor chip on your laptop is one of those soldered parts, you may well be disappointed unless you're comfortable with desoldering and then soldering the new chip back on. On the other hand, if the chip is accessible and removable, another compatible processor that's more powerful may be easily possible. You must be warned that this is not going to be easy though. Typically, your manufacturer will be delighted to upgrade your processor with a compatible replacement; however, they will certainly charge for the parts and labor. You must weigh the pros of upgrading the processor chip vis-a-vis purchasing a new laptop. However, if you're the brave geek who doesn't care about the manufacturer's warranty, by all means get the micro screwdrivers and replace the processor chip. No doubt there's a risk, but if it pays off, you'll be glad that you can do without the latest mean laptop in town. Motherboard compatibility is a major "if" even if you find the ideal chip that sits in the socket somehow! |
Graphics/Video Card | Moving on to a bit more complexity with regard to upgrading, and this one's sure to render the manufacturer warranty invalid. Now that you have upgraded storage capacity and memory, the next important thing that will surely please the gaming freak in you is a graphics card that matches up to them. The reason for this upgrade is that the card itself is likely to have its own memory and enough processing for the mind-blowing graphics such that your laptop performance (or lack of it) does not matter. For added satisfaction, check out the prices of laptops designed purely for better gaming experience and you are sure to find the graphics card upgrade even more tempting! However, here's the bummer, check if you can replace the graphics card at all! An integrated graphics chip may be tough to replace, unless you are one of the lucky few to own a laptop (mostly alienware or custom-made) that allows you to replace the graphics card. Fret not, for there's a ray of hope with graphics cards that can be docked externally (usually detected by the operating system as an external video device). Depending on how old or new your laptop is and if it has the required slots, plugging an external graphics card may be relatively easy. |
- Use a performance monitor utility to keep tabs on your CPU, disk and memory loads. This is where you will get the earliest signs of a need for an upgrade.
- Does your laptop boot in time enough for you to soak into a warm bath and come back? Check your startup list and remove unnecessary application from automatically loading at startup.
- If you have wondered about the use of the Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter utilities, take the hint from their names! The Disk Cleanup deletes temporary files and suggests deletion of unused program files and the Defragmenter consolidates file (much like organizing your wardrobe) for faster access.
- Similarly, a registry cleaning utility will also help improve laptop performance.
- Regularly scan your laptop for spyware, viruses and malicious applications. Keep the antivirus software updated.